IMAGING
System camera
Black felt
Pringles can
Standard lens, but
assembled backwards
Make this macro
extension tube out of
$5 worth of materials.
Macro Photography
On a Budget
Pringles-can lens extender produces dazzling
ultra close-ups for peanuts. By Haje Jan Kamps
Photography is often seen as an expensive hobby, it against your camera body, you can take photos
but here’s a way to create a lot of fun for very little up close. In theory, the farther away from the
money: a macro extension tube you can make for camera you hold your lens, the higher magni-less than $5 worth of materials. fication you get. The problem is that the “air”
between the camera and lens element can’t have
Macro Tube Theory any light leaking in. Furthermore, there cannot be
The concept of a macro tube is as old as pho- any lens movement when you take photos, as this
tography itself. Normally, a lens takes incoming will result in blurry photos. The solution? A macro
parallel light and focuses it down onto the film or extension tube, which holds the lens and shuts
imaging chip. By turning the lens the wrong way out light.
around, the opposite happens: light focused in on Extension tubes and bellows can be bought,
a small area is refracted to become more parallel. but that’s definitely more expensive and prob-
With the lens in its wrong-way configuration, ably a lot less gratifying than building something
either by using a reversal ring or by just holding yourself. For our tube, we’ll use a Pringles can,
